


wide-eyed into this world of wonder

by Saul



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-10
Updated: 2016-11-10
Packaged: 2018-08-30 03:50:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8517463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saul/pseuds/Saul
Summary: In their defense, he had been warned:  Don’t mess with the Monsters, okay? They’re bad news.





	

You’re sure you’re fine?”

“Completely fine.”

“… Alright.” Hands shoved deep into his jean pockets, Matt scuffed his shoe against the dorm carpet and, finally, stopped scrutinizing Neil. “Just. Don’t mess with the Monsters, okay? They’re bad news.”

With his so-called welcome weekend at Columbia not a day old, Neil thought that was a bit of an understatement. With his own experience at Columbia with the Monsters, Matt had to know that.

“This Friday,” Matt said, snapping Neil’s frayed attention back to the present, “if you want, the rest of us are going to hang in Dan’s room and watch some movies. After this last weekend, I don’t blame you if you sit out, but– give it a thought. Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Neil replied, intending nothing of the sort. “Sure.”

Matt gave him a tentative smile, check his watch, and beat a hasty retreat for a class he hadn’t realized he was late to.

While Neil had no intention of _hanging out_ with _anyone_ on the team, when Friday rolled around and Nicky (of whom Neil absolutely wanted nothing to do with) passed along that Andrew planned another trip to the city, Neil chose his excuse without thinking. That was how he ended up on the floor in front of Dan’s couch, a can of soda (that he had opened himself straight from the twelve pack box) in hand, surrounded by laid back upperclassmen and watching a very, very bad action movie.

At least, Dan said it was bad. Matt said it was cool. For once, Seth agreed with Matt; in the meanwhile, Allison wouldn’t stop pointing out how many times the protagonist could have just killed the antagonist, Neil privately agreed with her, and Renee took the chance to delve into the protagonist’s rudimentary moral values.

Outside of a simple question or two, none of them bothered Neil.

That more than anything made the night an alright one.

_But._

The upperclassmen were odd. Neil didn’t know how, exactly, but they were. He kept his hands and eyes on his soda more than the movie, half-certain his next sip would have the sweet aftertaste of angel dust or, maybe, something worse.

(He was being paranoid. Andrew’s lot were the ones to drug him. Matt, as far as Neil could tell, was comparatively harmless.)

(This was the first time he’d _hung out_ with any group outside of school for a reason other than a school project. He admitted to himself that he wasn’t entirely sure what to do.)

“Anyone want anything while I’m up? Dan? Renee? Neil?”

Matt’s voice and sudden rise from the couch froze Neil on the spot. He blinked, and realized his next sip could not possibly contain angel dust, as his soda was empty; moreover, the first movie had finished, as Dan and Allison bickered over the genre for the next; finally, thirst scratched his throat.

“I’m good!” Renee replied.

“Punch, please!” Dan called.

“I’ll get my own,” Neil said, and stood.

Matt gave him a lopsided smile and no protest, hefting two red solo cups at Neil as he passed. “Hey. Just wanted to say, thanks for coming over tonight, Neil. If you ever need any help - with Andrew’s lot, or… anything - you know our door’s open, right? At least,” he laughed, “mine is. You’ve got a key, I mean, course it is.”

While Neil wasn’t entirely sure what to do with that, Matt seemed to realize he needed space and continued on with another tentative smile. Pushing down the memory of his mothers voice and the disbelief at them thinking they had the slightest idea of what he was tangled in (let alone that they could help), Neil let the upperclassmen’s chatter wash over him as he fetched a cup of his own and flipped the tap to fill.

In a way, that was peaceful. In a way. It was more relaxing than the first time he’d stepped into Palmetto. That had to mean something.

“Right! Wait, Neil, let me get you some ice– oh, shit!”

So concentrated on filling his cup and turning over the odd ceasefire Andrew seemed to have called on him throughout the week ( _if he was hoping to lull Neil into a sense of security, he was not going to succeed_ ) was Neil, Matt’s about-face went unnoticed until the tall man was _too close_. Neil spun and shoved on reflex, his heart in his throat over the possibility of being cornered once again.

His hand upended one of Matt’s cups, red spilling from its container and coating Matt’s bright orange shirt. Matt, for his part, looked as startled as Neil felt.

“Sorry,” Neil blurted, falling back on old protocols for accidents in school settings. He didn’t need to be remembered. He needed to minimize this accident and _get out_. “Sorry, I’ll, uh, get you a rag–”

“No, no, it’s fine,” Matt assured him, apparently cut from the same cloth as Neil Josten was _supposed_ to be. “It’s my fault, I didn’t mean to startle you, er, fuck– hey, you can sit back down, I’ll clean it up.”

Too late. Rag in hand, Neil crouched to sop up the punch spilled on the floor.

Except, the punch smeared dark and thick. Except, it pooled dense and heavy as if a smooth slushie. Except, Neil recognized the stains it left better than he knew what to do at a Friday night movie party.

“Neil,” Matt said, in the same quiet, worride voice he’d used to tell Neil he didn’t have to go to Columbia with the Monsters, “I’ll clean it up.”

The upperclassmen had fallen silent. Even if they hadn’t, the world filtered through to him muffled. There was blood spilled across the floor, and blood rushing through his ears. Unease clenched his heart; he looked up to Matt’s dark eyes, and found himself unable to look away.

From far away, Renee murmured, “Perhaps now would be a good time for the talk.”

“What?” Seth demanded, paused, and then: “Aw, fuck, Boyd. You clumsy ass. Waste of a perfectly good bag.”

“Neil? Hey, you okay?” Dan. Out of all of them, she sounded the most worried. That, Neil thought vaguely, was not good. “Matt, do you have him?”

That, Neil thought, was _even worse._

Matt crouched to his eye level. Neil watched him come closer, and felt fear suffocate him. And yet, he could do nothing.

“Yeah. I have him.”

“Put him to sleep,” someone said, their voice flippant and unconcerned. Their voices swam, Neil’s thoughts drowned, the world narrowed to Matt, his pounding heart, and an animal understanding that he was most likely about to die. “He was even more jumpy than usual all night, anyway. You _had_ to have heard him. His heart would thank us for the break.”

“He has good self-preservation instincts.”

“Obviously not, if he went to Columbia with that monster.”

“Is this really the time to be throwing the m-word around?”

“Neil?”

The world swam, but Matt’s voice rang loud and clear.

“Take it easy, man. You should sleep.”

If he slept, he would most certainly die.

“Shit, Neil, no—”

“Like I said. Good self-preservation instincts.”

“Boyd, what the fuck? Are you that incompetent? Put him down before he hurts himself!”

Somehow, though he swore his legs were made of jelly and his lungs clogged with mud, Neil had fallen away from Matt. Just a moment longer and he knew he’d be able to look around, that he could find a weapon or a door or a window and survive this.

“Neil!”

The moment passed. His attention zeroed back to Matt, everything around him a spinning blur.

Matt leaned close and said, “ _Sleep,_ ” his breath thick with the smell of rust. His teeth looked too big for his mouth, his eyes were swallowed by black, Neil was _going to die._

“Neil! Whoa, whoa!”

Neil woke with a jolt, his head pounding and mouth dry. Breath caught in his throat, he shoved himself back, swept out an arm to push everything back, and scrambled away from the splash of red that followed.

A solo cup rolled harmlessly across the carpet, red staining speckled beige in a wash.

Seth spat, “Fuck, man. Party foul much?”

“It’s okay,” Renee said. “We can clean it up.”

Dan groaned. “Fruit punch is a bitch to get out of carpeting.”

Neil, woozy and disorientated, did his best to take in the upperclassmen one at a time. Settling on any one felt as difficult as if he were drugged, but he tasted nothing except soda. Had they–? No. They wouldn’t. Would they?

There had been blood. The stain on the floor had been blood.

The stain on the carpet, Neil knew on sight, was not blood.

“You were p-t-f- _oh’d_ , dude.” Matt said. Neil flinched, his headache spiking behind his eyes. “Might be best to head back to the dorm. You want any help getting th–”

“No,” Neil hastily cut in, and somehow gathered his legs under him. “I’m fine. Thanks. Sorry about the– the punch.”

“Don’t worry about it, Neil,” Renee soothed.

Matt tried to catch his eye. Neil ducked his head, everything in him screaming to _get out,_ and followed his gut. He left.

Because his head was down, the red stain down Matt’s shirt flashed in the corner of his eye. It could have been punch. It probably was punch. Matt had been right next to him; the cup he’d knocked might have splashed.

The rest of him knew: it was too dark. Blood stains were harder to get out than fruit punch.

He didn’t ask. He left.

**Author's Note:**

> done for a halloween celebration on [tumblr](https://unkingly.tumblr.com/) with the prompt "vampire au." may or may not be continued if inspiration strikes (it would be a matt/neil/dan verse, that's all I currently know), but even if it's just this, hope you enjoyed! thanks for reading!


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